Fred Bryan’s Story
While growing up, as a teen, Fred Bryan is quoted as having said,” If we needed a ride on the weekend or we needed to go somewhere, we’d steal a car.”
With that kind of thinking, Fred found himself committed by the Juvenile Court judge to serve time in an institution, when he was 17. As he said, “I didn’t have any aspirations of being a career criminal.” On the other hand, he didn’t know what he wanted to do or whether to take a football scholarship at the University of Northern Iowa.
The staff in the Hennepin County Home School, the Institution he found himself in, helped him straighten his thinking around by refusing to accept his complaints when he thought he was a victim of the justice system, and by challenging him to think about how his future could be different. His defining moment came after a disagreement with a staff member who challenged him to come back and work in the Institution after release, and “do better” than was being done in the Institution.
He made the right decision after leaving the institution. He accepted the football scholarship for the University of Northern Iowa, majoring in social work. Then he returned to work at the same institution that challenged him to think and make better decisions and rise above his victim stance attitude. Instead, he became known as a person who is measured and good-natured. He is a coach. Through watching his mentors, he discovered how to be skillful at being the “one who is calm when everything is swirling around”.
Among his many attributes is his uncompromising sense of right and wrong. He clearly identifies and articulates what is going wrong and he quickly stops the situation from going further. In order to be a great coach, you have to have the character to intercede, think, and decide about a new direction.
Not only did he become a Staff person who could coach and teach justice-involved-youth in the Institution how to make better life decisions, but he also worked as a coach on the football field at North High School in Minneapolis.
As his sense of being able to step in, think on his feet, make stellar decisions, and redirect behavior became even more obvious, he was promoted through the ranks in the Hennepin Court Services system to being second from the top of the Department of Corrections in a County serving two million citizens.
Not surprisingly, but significantly unusual in any sense of the word, Fred not only rose to a top executive position in Court Services in this Greater Minneapolis County of Hennepin, but he also advanced his football coaching reputation from high school coach, to officiating junior college games, to NCAA Division III games, where he was discovered and hired by the NFL to officiate games starting in 2009. He continues to officiate for the NFL every week end, and will hopefully remain with the NFL for many years to come.
When Fred returned to the Hennepin County Home School after graduation from College, his first assignment was in Cottage One. This is where the most serious juvenile offenders of Hennepin County were placed by the Court. The program for these youth was a cognitive behavioral one that helped youth define their errors in thinking, the impact and consequences of their illegal thinking and behavior, creating awareness that helped them change their illegal behavior. Fred was a natural working with these youth.
The staff team that Fred worked with graduated youth from that program. Offenders returned to their communities after serving six months. Seventy four percent of those youth did not return to court for even so much as a probation violation, according to a one-year recidivism follow up study conducted by the University of Minnesota. Again, his sense of justice, right and wrong, and his ability to teach and coach youth to change their behavior and make legal choices and decisions, were making a difference with these youth.
Who Fred is, and all of the above accolades about Fred Bryan are the reasons why the Shea-Hellervik Global Foundation is proud to announce that Fred Bryan has accepted a position on their Advisory Board.
Turns out that stealing cars lead to two remarkable careers for a young person who was willing to change his youthful illegal thinking and behavior, accept feedback, and work toward success. And what a success he is!!